The Digital Fix: Television

Supergirl: 3.22 Make It Reign

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After last week's near unwatchable mess, this episode moved back into the realms of coherence...but not by much. The show is still suffering from too much happening in one episode and as such certain story threads this week lose their impact.

Kara and Mon-El are still trapped on Argo after the bad Kryptonians stole their/J’onn’s shop and headed to Earth. Meanwhile Lena is trying to fix Sam who is dying post de-Reigning as her human and Kryptonian cells fight each other. I feel like we’re leading to a finale showdown that includes Sam with superpowers (at least for a short burst?) fighting Reign. My own lack of investment in the Sam/reign storyline is still making it hard for me care abut this plot strand as we approach the finale.

J’onn and his father finally decide its time to mind meld I mean… oh I don’t know, they just mind meld… so J’onn’s father’s memoires can be passed to him before he dies. This is all a bit too Vulcan and I can’t help but feel I’ve seen this all before. Of course nearly every ideas has been explored before in sci-fi, especially by Star Trek but there is no apparent attempt to make these scenes stand out in any way. The actors do a valiant job of taking us on an emotional journey but I just feel like the show needed to focus on this big idea in more details, rather than as a third side plot.

These shows lacks the courage to dedicate an entire episode to one or two characters dealing with a personal emotion issue. If last weekweek's episode had been a two hander with J’onn and his father re-living their time on Mars via memory and no other characters or story strands where included, it would have been more interesting, more exciting and far more emotional.

After finding out the bad Kryptonians are heading to Earth and being told there is no way to leave Argo, Kara’s mum mentions that actually Kara’s dad had been working on a teleport device which is half finished in the basement. This is the kind of sloppy, convenient, almost insulting storytelling this show has become lousy with in this season. Why she didn’t think to try this as soon as they knew there was a problem makes no sense. Also, with the addition of two more bad Kryptonians, both of whome are strong middle aged women, I couldn't help wondering why they didn't keep Sarah Douglas back for one of these roles, especially since they keep spouting Ursa's old dialogue?

So we learn that Sam was separated from Reign but that Reign might still exist as a separate entity. Of course. Mon-El and Kara manage to get to earth (with Kara’s mum in tow) just as the bad Kryptonians invade the DEO. The one interesting element this week is to do with Winn creating a nano-shield to protect people from Kryptonian attack - after giving it to some random DEO guy, that guy does some sneaking around during the attack on the DEO, only to trust the shield, play hero and get killed. Winn ends the episode feeling responsible for random guy’s death, which is a nice thing to explore, though I suspect it will get dealt with pretty quickly next week.

Alex is still looking into adoption and being over clingy with Ruby. Her behavior is actually bordering on creepy; she seems almost obsessed with being a mother and her focus on Ruby in this desire is a little unhealthy. Also this week, we see that Alex’s suit is full of Kryptonite infused weapons tech. Considering Kara’s freak out at Lena over the use of Kryptonite I’m surprised Alex is allowed to walk around in a Kryptonite suit?

This was, unfortunately, another episode in which Melissa Benoist just looks bored. She doesn’t have a great deal of screen time and when she is on screen her performance is cheesy and distant. Erica Durnace also feels so passive that I’m no longer excited to see her on the show and I just keep thinking fondly back to her energetic modern take on Lois Lane.

By the end of the episode the world is at risk of being terraformed into New Krypton, with Reign carrying a magic sword to the centre of the Earth. There's no mention of calling in Superman and Kara doesn’t use her inter-dimensional device to ask Barry for help; its just her and her mum, J’onna and his dad and Mon-El to save the world. But I think they might just manage it…

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Debuting in 1966, Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek survived cancellation and returned with a series of films featuring Jame T Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. It spawned four massively successes TV spin-offs and movies and ruled cult TV in the 1990s. After Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, it spawned a film prequel / reboot under the guise of JJ Abrams but returned to its TV roots in 2017 with Star Trek: Discovery...

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